Commercial Leasing for Wind Power Development on the Central Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf

COMMENTS FROM THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF DELAWARE Agency: BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT (BOEM) Document Type: Notice Title: Requests for Information: Commercial Leasing for Wind Power Development on the Central Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf Document ID: BOEM-2022-0023-0001 From Maine south to North Carolina, citizens who want to mitigate the disasters of climate change are working to implement their states' climate change goals and to set up offshore wind projects. Plenty of Delaware environmentalists support an offshore wind project as well. Energy committees in both Houses of the State legislature and DNREC authorized the University of Delaware's Special Initiative on Offshore Wind (SIOW) to do a study that would focus on possibilities for an offshore wind project in Delaware. (See Willett Kempton, et al, "Offshore Wind Procurement Options for Delaware," attached.) Similar studies were done for Massachusetts and New York, and both states subsequently committed to major offshore wind projects. The study has been completed, and using its helpful data legislators are expected to make a serious offshore wind engagement in Delaware during our next legislative session. Without at least one large Delaware offshore wind project we will not be able to meet goals of the Biden Administration and of the US Climate Alliance (to which Delaware is a signatory) for carbon dioxide abatement. We are hopeful that a bill that includes a goal of 50% carbon dioxide emission reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 will pass our House of Representatives the day following this submission. It is important for Delawareans that BOEM include at least two Wind Energy Areas for lease off the shores of Delaware. One of the strong recommendations of the SIOW report mentioned above is that bidding be competitive. When we get to the point of issuing an RFP, it is crucial that we have more than one bidder in order to have a competitive price. Virginia had one bidder and it resulted in ratepayer costs much higher than normal. An 800 MW offshore wind project would spare Delawareans $69 million each year in healthcare costs, and would spare 9.5 lives annually. (See Buonocore et al, "Health and Climate Benefits of Offshore Wind Facilities in Mid-Atlantic United States," https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/21561) Our health demands offshore wind, as well as our sinking shore line...a shore line that helped in adding $3.5 billion tourism dollars to our economy in 2018. (See Schmidt, Sophia, "Record Number of Tourists Visited Delaware in 2018," https://www.delawarepublic.org/business/2020-01-27/record-number-of-tourists-visited-delaware-in-2018) The League of Women Voters of Delaware urges BOEM to designate call areas up and down the coast, but particularly off Delaware's coast where the need is so great. Peggy Schultz, Portfolio Chair, Climate Change and Energy League of Women Voters of Delaware